The closure of a Perth bridge, which will last for four months, will result in changed bus routes, new parking measures and diverted routes for pedestrians.
Perth and Kinross Council has outlined its programme of works for St Leonard’s Bridge, Craigie, which begin on Monday March 25, and will see some overnight work taking place.
The local authority admits that some businesses and residents in the vicinity have expressed concerns about the work and, with this in mind, it has set up a public exhibition to take place on Monday at a shop in Craigie Cross.
With pedestrians forced to take a diverted route through the South Inch, police will increase patrols in the area.
Derek Davidson, Perth and Kinross Council’s senior engineer in the structures and flooding team and project manager for the St Leonard’s Bridge works, told The Courier that the council has “taken on board” the views of some businesses and residents following a previous public exhibition in October.
He said: “The bridge is owned by Network Rail and the footways were built around the turn of the century and there was a small piece of concrete fell in 2011, so we’ve been planning to replace the footways since then. The new beams will be bedded in and there are six arches in total.”
Mr Davidson said one of the main queries from the public was why will it take four months for the work to be completed.
“The reason for that is we can’t replace one length of the footway at a time,” he added. “If we did that the whole of the steelwork would destabilise and that would lead to potential collapse, so the construction will be split into three phases.
“It’s not safe to allow vehicles across the bridge. The decision was to stick to four months bridge closure as that restricts disruption to the public in general, but unfortunately that means there will no pedestrian access to the bridge.”
Mr Davidson said “there was always” going to be night-time work required as the bridge is above several live railway lines, but stressed these will take place on Sunday mornings, from 2am-8.30am.
“There will be quite a bit of late-night working but, after speaking with the contractors, we have reduced this from around 40 nights to about eight,” he said.
“With night-time working there will be some noise at night, obviously it’s unavoidable, unfortunately. However, we will be monitoring the noise during these periods and the contractor will be issuing letters to all businesses and residents one week in advance of each night-time work. So at least people will be aware there will be some disruption.”
The local authority will hold another public exhibition at the end of April and Mr Davidson said it hopes to gauge the views of Craigie locals as to the impact of the night-time work.
He said that work was put back from January to March, partly because of some concerns about schoolchildren walking to and from school in hours of darkness through the South Inch.
If flood barriers are up in the South Inch during this period, the public should walk along Glover Street and down Glasgow Road, but they will only be used “if absolutely necessary”.
Perth and Kinross Council will put signs in a range of locations advising that shops and businesses in Craigie Cross will be open as usual during the works, while vehicles will be diverted along Edinburgh Road to avoid congestion in Glover Street.
Temporary parking restrictions will be in place to “free up” parking spaces in the area.
Mr Davidson said that bus times “will be longer”, but the frequency will remain the same.
The public exhibition will run from noon-7pm on Monday.
preoch@thecourier.co.uk